Confidentiality Agreement

The Importance of Confidentiality

All of the advice the search committee has received and Cornell's own past experience indicate that a confidential process is critical to a successful search. The best candidates will not appear for an open or compromised search. Toward that end, all members of the Presidential Search Committee and the staff supporting the committee have signed a confidentiality agreement. A copy of that agreement is reproduced below.

The search committee is comfortable that the significant efforts to obtain input at the beginning of the process, as well as the broad representation of campus constituencies among the membership of the committee itself, will allow the committee to consider all community voices throughout the search process.

Confidentiality Agreement

In consideration of my designation as a member of the Cornell University Presidential Search Committee (hereinafter search committee) and the resulting access I will have to confidential information and materials related to the presidential search, and with full knowledge of the critical importance of the principle of confidentiality to the integrity and success of the search process, I hereby agree:

  1. That the deliberations of the search committee and any and all information, whether verbal or in the form of papers, books, files, documents, electronic communications, or in any other form or format, which comes into my possession or knowledge in my capacity as a Search Committee member and relates to the presidential search and the work of the search committee, is confidential
  2. That I will not in any form or manner, directly or indirectly, divulge, disclose, or communicate such confidential information to any person, firm, corporation, or other entity, other than a search committee member or a person otherwise designated by the chairman to receive such confidential information
  3. That all contacts with the media, and any contact with other third parties in which confidential information will be disclosed, shall be conducted either by, or with the specific prior authorization of, the chairman
  4. That the obligation to maintain confidentiality described in the above paragraphs exists both during the period that the search committee is active and at any and all times thereafter

I have read, understand, and agree to abide by all of the terms of this confidentiality agreement as a condition of my continued service as a search committee member.